Youth movement

Some moves announced. Guthrie, Merced released. Abad, Acevedo, Corey, and Roberts to Nashville.

"The plan for the future is promoting our own players and hoping they have impact,'' general manager Dave Littlefield said. "Last year, when we signed (a lot of) free agents, it was a function of not having any internal options. Now we have some options, and we're trying to make the decision: Are those options ready?''

The 2004 Pirates could turn out younger than the 1986 Pirates. Here's a table comparing the 1986 Pirates with 100+ at-bats or 40+ innings vs. a wild-ass guess of how the 2004 Pirates might shape up.

C	Pena	29	Kendall	30
1B	Bream	25	Simon	29
2B	Ray	29	Castillo	23
3B	Morrison	33	Stynes	31
SS	Belliard	24	Wilson	26
OF	Orsulak	24	Bay	25
OF	Reynolds	27	Redman	27
OF	Bonds	21	Mondesi	33
bench	Brown	26	Wilson	27
bench	Diaz	26	Mackowiak	28
bench	Almon	33	Nunez	28
bench	Bonilla	23	Hill	26
bench	Khalifa	22	Sanchez	26
bench	Washington	32	Davis	25
bench	Ortiz	26	Cota	25
SP	Reuschel	37	Wells	27
SP	Rhoden	33	Benson	29
SP	Bielecki	26	Fogg	27
SP	Kipper	21	Perez	22
SP	Walk	29	Vogelsong	26
SP	McWilliams	32	Burnett	21
RP	Winn	27	Meadows	28
RP	Guante	26	Torres	32
RP	Clements	24	Johnston	25
CL	Robinson	29	Mesa	38
		27.36		27.36

Replace Burnett with Reed and the average age jumps to 43 28.04. Replace Johnston with Beimel and it rises further, to 28.16. Any Kendall trade might bring in a 45-year-old catcher, too. It's not likely the 2004 team will be younger, but it will be close at least.